Five quick takes on a crazy day
Tennessee won a wild one today. Josh Dobbs' brilliance helped the Vols overcome a day when Missouri gained more yardage than any opponent Tennessee has ever faced. Here are five quick takes on a 63-37 win.
1 — Offense shows up, Dobbs goes off — Tennessee’s defense was about as bad as it could possibly get today. Fortunately for the Vols, the offense was up to the task, and it was a big one. The Vols defense was so porous that their offensive counterparts were under pressure to put points on the board virtually every time they had the ball.
They pretty much did just that. Josh Dobbs had one of the most productive days of his career, completing 15-of-22 223 yards and three TDs. He was brilliant on the ground, running for 190 yards on only 10 carries with two more scores for a total of five touchdowns. He also had four runs of 22 yards or more including TDs of 70 and 30 yards in the second half.
The big play was also in evidence in the passing game today. Both Jauan Jennings (49 yards) and Josh Malone (57 yards) came up with big downfield catches for scores. The ground game produced nine runs of 12 yards more
Tennessee gained an impressive 601 yards of total offense on the day and started the second half by scoring touchdowns on five of six possessions to take control of a shootout at 49-30 in the fourth quarter.
The Vols had nice balance on the day and finished the game without committing a single turnover, only the second time they’ve done that this season.
On a day when the defense just got savaged, Tennessee needed the offense to deliver and they did in a big way.
2 — Run defense (again) — A week after getting gashed for 443 yards against Kentucky Tennessee was worse today against Missouri. Seriously.
Missouri broke the all-time record for total yardage by an opponent, ripping the Vols apart on the way to gaining 740 yards of total offense. Yes, there are injuries, but that’s no excuse for the shoddy play on that side of the ball in the last two weeks.
The Tigers had 251 yards rushing in the first half alone and 420 for the game. That’s two consecutive weeks that the Vols have given up more than 400 yards to the opponent and the third time this season, just remarkable. Two different backs topped the century mark for Missouri and freshman Demarea Crockett was made to look like a young Herschel Walker on his way to 225 yards rushing.
Mizzou had an incredible 18 ‘chunk’ plays on the ground, that is runs of 11 yards or more, and seven pass plays of 15 yards or more. Those are amazing totals. So is this one, the Tigers ran 110 offensive plays on the day, just an enormous total.
If all you saw of this game was the final score you might think the Vols had an easy afternoon of it. That was hardly the case and while coaches will rightly say the only stat that matters is in the win/loss column, there seems to be legit concerns with this defense.
The only real bright spot for the defense was the fact that they forced four turnovers. One of those came from Jonathan Kongbo who stepped in front of a screen pass and raced 58 yards with it for a touchdown.
3 — Mix it up — Mike Debord had a nice game plan and at least his side of the ball executed it. In the ground game, as they did against Kentucky, the Vols used a lot of two tight end sets to their advantage.
Debord also employed some creative ways to get Tyler Byrd the football. Byrd lined up in the backfield on occasion, had a 22 yard run on a reverse, caught a little shovel pass for 10 yards and in general looked more involved in the offense.
Most impressively, at least to me, was how Debord kept Missouri off balance by throwing on first down. That was particularly the case in the first half. Tennessee did some of that last week against Kentucky, but it was more apparent today. It was also effective.
Dobbs was 8-for-8 on first down throws in the first half for 152 yards and a touchdown.
It also looked like Tennessee really took advantage of Dobbs’ legs with designed runs in specific situations. He didn’t keep it a lot, but when he did he was brutally effective, finishing the day with 190 yards on just 10 attempts for a healthy 19 yards per attempt average. A pretty strong day at the office.
4 — Second half start — Tennessee wasn’t in dire straits or anything at the half, holding a 21-20 lead, but the Vols’ defense had looked so bad in the first half that there was ample reason for concern.
On the first play of the third quarter Micah Abernathy snagged a Drew Lock pass and returned it 26 yards to the Missouri nine yard line. Three plays later Dobbs hit Jauan Jennings for a touchdown that put the Vols up 28-20 and prevented Missouri from generating any momentum after taking the second half kickoff.
That’s no small thing, because based on the first half, it certainly felt like the Tigers were more than capable of marching down the field to start the third quarter and taking the lead.
The turnover was huge and then for the offense to make sure they turned it into seven points was equally large.
5 — Offensive line — Let’s give these guys a shout out. They’ve been much maligned at times this season and have dealt with as many injuries as any unit on the team.
That continued this week with Dylan Wiesman on the shelf. That put Venzell Boulware in the starting line-up for the first time in his career at right guard. It was the ninth different starting line-up the Vols have gone with up front in 11 games. That’s probably not something you’re ever going to see again in your football lifetime.
That group paved the way for 609 yards of total offense, a number that looks bigger if Missouri hadn’t gotten 740 yards themselves. The offense averaged an impressive 9.1 yards per play, an impressive number.
The Vols also averaged 8.6 yards per rushing attempt, converted 9-of-15 third downs and came away touchdowns on all three trips inside the red zone.
They also largely limited Missouri’s pass rush, giving up just one sack on the day.
Lastly, when they had the chance to take control of the game late in the fourth, they did just that with a seven play, 58 yard drive to put the Vols up 49-30 with 9:25 left in the game.